Ranch Room – Bellingham, Washington, USA

The cocktail lounge of the Horseshoe Cafe in the centre of Bellingham, WA is one of the bars that made me love bars. Western-themed murals adorn the walls, the drinks are shockingly inexpensive overpours served in tiny juice glasses with a splash of mixer on top, and the clientele is a mix of unwashed University of Western Washington students and old timers, with the occasional hash-brown-and-sausage-gravy scarfing gaggle of drag queens. We’ve seen the jukebox go from CDs to mp3s, the drinks rise in price from $1.75 to $2.50 (or $3 for the Sunday morning bloody mary including breakfast special), and an exponential growth in the popularity of the mutton-chops-white-man-fro-and-toque look, but the Ranch Room has remained essentially the same since our first visit. We can only hope it stays that way – ready as always to be the first or last stop on the Bellingham Debauchery Trail.

Visited: 1990-present

Mint Bar – Sheridan, Wyoming, USA

The wild and weird west is bucked its way into my bar-lovin’ heart at The Mint Bar. Opened in 1907 on the main street of the decidedly bovine Sheridan, WY, this watering hole features a plethora of furry taxidermy and shiny burnished burl. Over a few cocktails, the unassumingly chatty owner-operator gave us the low-down on the ins and outs of the modern cattle business.  The only thing that could have improved the atmosphere would have been “Cattle Call” and a little Waylon on the jukebox.

If you don’t think that’s a fabulous way to spend a sunny Monday morning, you’d better move on down the trail, pardner.

Visited: August 10, 2009